A journey through the life (and parenthood) of Ken and Stephanie Clark

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Uncertain Times

I don't usually get political on my blog. In fact, I never do. However, after the decision made by the Supreme Court to uphold the personal mandate for health insurance, I have to use whatever outlet I can to communicate to my generation the severity and long term consequences that have, in fact, taken place today. Let me start off with a short personal story.

My husband was diagnosed with skin cancer several years ago. Thankfully, we have had the cancerous cells removed whenever a patch cropped up, and at the moment he is living cancer free. Praise the Lord.

But because my husband works for himself, his insurance went up over 100% when the insuance company found out about his diagnosis. He went from paying about $300 a month with a $1,000 deductible, to paying over $700 a month with the same deductible over night.

My husband has never failed to pay a bill...or even to pay a bill on time (except for this one time when he boycotted ATT). He is more than responsible and even helped me with my debt when I met him. He has never not had insurance. He takes care of himself. He paid out of pocket several thousand dollars to have his cancer removed in hopes the insurance company wouldn't up his premiums. Obviously, that didn't happen. (Insurance companies couldn't care less about upping your monthly output.)

The main reason I went back to work after I had Christian, was to ensure my husband would have insurance coverage. With the possibility of more cancer showing up, we didn't want to chance his insurance company dropping him. Also, I didn't want to have to worry about my husband putting off important doctor's visits because of cost.

My point in sharing this personal story, is to express the fact that I understand how messed up our healthcare system is in this country. I know firsthand how unfair and overwhelming it can be to just stay healthy.

However, under Obama's healthcare law, we will be paying trillions of dollars to cover 30 million uninsured people's insurance. There is no way we can support this type of plan. Our country simply doesn't produce any amount of money anywhere close to what is necessary to enact this type of policy. And it sounds great, right? Healthcare for everyone. But when you have a system that is crumbling financially, you don't add to the decay.

I'm worried about Christian's future. What type of country will he be living in when this policy goes into full effect? What type of debt will be added to his tab that he nor his grandchildren or granchildren's children will ever be able to pay off?

Not to mention, the unrest that is taking place overseas is at a hightened level. People like Putin are sitting back and watching America destroy itself from the inside out.

There are so many aspects of Obamacare that are a detriment to our country as it is. But providing healthcare to over 30 million people who supposedly can't afford it will break the American bank. We need a better option. And we need it now. If there was ever a time to be complacent or negligent, now is not that time. It is time to get informed. It is time to becomes involved. It is time to get your own house in order, because the times to come are uncertain. There is no security in more government and more government regulation. There is only security in self and God. See to your preparedness, for I predict hard times are upon us.